Migrate Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional 8.3.1 to new Windows machine

[Steve50B6]

I have been running Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional 8.3.1 on my Windows Vista T60p IBM ThinkPad (yes! it still works perfectly!) for ~15 years.  I'm finally biting the bullet and moving to a souped-up P-1 ThinkPad (now Lenovo) running Windows 11.  Though I have my original installation files and my activation code, I cannot use them ... because the online activation no longer works!  Nor does the telephone activation.

So, I'm betting there must be some registry key somewhere that regulates this, but I don't know what it is!  I'm not doing anything other than trying to keep running the software I paid for as I migrate to a new environment, but Adobe has no intereset in helping me do that, since I'm not giving them any new money - which doesn't sound like a great customer-retention policy in the long run.

If anyone has figured out a way to accomplish this, I would really appreciate the help.  I've already checked into "alternatives", but the problem is ... I don't want to lose my HUGE investment in the expertise I've built with Acrobat 8 Professional, especially all the markup functionality.

Thanks in advance for any clues.

[try67]

There's nothing that can be about it, I'm afraid. Acrobat 8 is dead and can no longer be activated on new machines.

[Steve50B6]

Well, I can't believe that.  Activation results in registry settings ... so, somewhere, there's a registry key with my activation code in it, and it says to allow use.  I will find that key ... somehow:-)

[try67]

OK, good luck with it.

[Test Screen Name]

Activation is a connection to Adobe's servers to check your serial number before you can use it. Adobe shut down the servers years ago. Game over. You can build on your investment with an Acrobat DC subscription, Adobe might say.

[Steve50B6]

Clearly, initial activation is a connection to Adobe's servers.  However, once activated, there is no further online connection - as I have experienced for over a decade.  Once activated, there is some registry key that "blesses" the installation, and says it's good to go.

That's the key (pun intended:-)) to resolving my quandary, and I will find it ... somehow.

[try67]

It doesn't have to be a registry key, it can be any number of things. And the only way to find it (if at all) would be to compare the full file-system of a machine before and after activation.

PS. Beyond the technical challenge, I'm not sure this circumvention of the activation is legally allowed (according to the EULA), but maybe Adobe forfeited the (moral) right to enforce that when they deactivated the servers. But I'm no lawyer. You do so at your own risk.

[Steve50B6]

I strongly doubt it's anything other than a registry key.  And the registry-compare is a step to take, but I've held off, as I'm convinced somebody must know the answer to this.

As for any quasi-legalese, I don't buy that a bit.  I paid to run a piece of software.  If my machine fell into a well, I donlt lose the right to runt hat software.

[gary_sc]

Ignoring the legal issues, how many software titles do you own where the software was released 17 years ago and reached EoL (End of Life) 12 years ago, still work?

Even if you could activate your software successfully, how many of the commands from Acro 8 will have places to link to either hardware-wise or software-wise?

I appreciate your desire to have something you have already bought to continue to work forever, but that won't happen in the software and hardware computer industry, that won't happen. So yes, it's a game (update one thing, and now you have to update a bunch of other things), but that's how the game works.  

I play the game because I gave my old typewriter away years ago. And yes, it still worked.

[Steve50B6]

Thanks for your reply, but I'm looking for help with a solution, not preaching:-)  Besides which, what you say is mostly incorrect.  Software CAN run pretty much forever on an underlying OS, IF that OS carries core components along to future updates.  Windows is a perfect example. My Vista was deemed OS non grata years ago - yet works perfectly well ... because I have kept it fine-tuned over the years. UNIX is a better example, as it remains far more resilient and robust than Windows, and runs everything from the epoch:-)

To your point, I own many much software titles older than my Acrobat Pro (e.g. Paintshop Pro 7.04, released 2001) and they ALL work just fine.  The whole "not supported" thing is just another money-grubbing scam.  Yes, sometimes new features are added that won't work in an old version - e.g. my Outlook 2003 and my Google Chrome 49.xxx  cannot process some newer-format email messages / HTML formats -- but guess what? Those are Microsoft and Google products!  Think that's by accident? ... Both these old products work fine 90+% of the time processing current information on Vista.  And they work the same on Win 10.  As does pretty much ALL the other stuff I moved over, with some requiring tweaking to circumvent the "not supported" nonsense.  I'm a technical guy, and, when needed, I can figure most of this out. But a lot of my skill is rusty from lack of use, and I know there are more savvy technical guys out there now, which is why I ask for help.

My Smith Corona from the 60s also works perfectly well, but I need no help with that. My granddaughters are quite content to type out very formal messages on it:-)

[Diane36785189tvr7]

Did you ever find your answer to this? I recently bought a new PC running Windows 11, moving from my Windows 7 PC that has a working Adobe Acrobat 8 Standard version. I have my original key, but of course, cannot register it.

[Serene_nature15C3]

Hi there

Hope you are doing well and thanks for reaching out.

Adobe Acrobat 8 is an old and EOL application. It is no longer supported on the latest Mac and Win OS.

For more information please go through the help page https://adobe.ly/3UmoS7u

~Amal